Before You Begin Mantra Sadhana

Typically, what all information do you need if you want to do sadhana of any mantra?
I say typically, because there are systems which are much more elaborate, such as Srividya upasana. They have been developed much, much beyond the typical.

We will take example of one particular mantra and see this.
Jaya Durga mantra — first of all, you should know the mantra itself in its pure form. In this case, it is:

ॐ दुर्गे दुर्गे रक्षिणि स्वाहा

How does mantra shastra ensure that a mantra does not become corrupt?
As it is passed on down shishya parampara, it can become corrupt. Someone may pronounce it incorrectly and then pass it on. For this, there is something called mantroddhara — a description of the components of the mantra, letters in that mantra. In this case, the mantroddhara is:

तारो दुर्गेयुगं रक्तमन्त्यं ढान्तं सलोचनम्।

द्विढान्ता जयदुर्गेयं विद्या वेद्या दशाक्षरी॥ 

This mantra has 10 letters — it is dashaksharee.

• The first one, tara — omkara.
  
  
• Then durge yugam — yugam means two times — durge durge.
  
  
• Raktam — means repha — ra.
  
  
• Then anthyam — the last letter on the varnamala — ksha.
  
  
• Then dhantam — na.
  
  
• Salochanam means — these two letters ksha and na have got ikara with them — ra–kshi–ni — rakshini.
  
  
• Dvithata means — ending with swaha.
  
  

So it becomes:
Om durge durge rakshini swaha.

It is not necessary that you should know the mantroddhara to do sadhana. But at any point in time, if you want to pass it on to someone, then better you know. If the mantra is not correct — if you are saying, let’s say, durge only once:

Om durge rakshini swaha — we may not know what effect it will produce. Instead of success, it may give defeat — we don’t know. Durge is there in the mantra twice for some reason. Otherwise, why two times? Why not once? Why not three?

Then you should know the rishi, chhandas, and devata of the mantra.
Mantra is revealed to a rishi. In this case, it was revealed to Rishi Markandeya. It is composed in a certain chhandas or meter. In this case, it is brihati.

See one point here — brihati is actually a meter with nine letters. Here, this is a dashakshari mantra. The meter with 10 letters is actually pankti. But the chhandas or meter given here is brihati. Why is this so?
Maybe one of the letters, maybe the omkara, is not active. We don’t know. It is called a dashakshari mantra — still the meter is given as brihati instead of pankti. These must be the active letters in the mantra, which are nine. But still, you have to chant it as Om durge... only. Not durge...

Devata, we know, is Jaya Durga.
Then there are beeja and shakti. Here, beeja is Om, shakti is Swaha. Some mantras have got a third component also called keelakam. In this mantra, keelakam is not mentioned.

Then you should know the shadanga nyasa of this mantra — six places in the body are to be touched with these nyasa mantras before starting chanting of the mantra.
Nyasa means to keep or to place. These mantras, called nyasa mantras, are to be placed in these parts of the body of sadhaka so that his ordinary human body becomes divine.

Only a divine body has the right to worship God — Devo bhutva...
Only a God has got the right to worship God. Nyasa is for this — to convert your body into the divine. This is why after chanting, uttara nyasa is also done — to make it back into normal human body. Because then you do so many worldly things — you may even visit the washroom. You should not do that with the divine energy in your body activated.

So, purva nyasa is like switching on the divine energy in your body, and uttara nyasa is switching it off. This is done with touching parts of the body with nyasa mantras both times — before and after. It is like a toggle switch. Mantras are the same. When you do it first, it becomes ON. When you do it again, it becomes OFF.

The places to be touched are:

• Middle of the chest
  
  
• Head at the border between forehead and hair
  
  
• The shikha
  
  
• Then in front of you as if you are wearing an armour — kavacha — this is done with both hands
  
  
• The eyes
  
  
• The sixth — shown with mudras as if you have shot arrows to dispel obstacles
  
  

The nyasa mantras for Jaya Durga mantra are:

ॐ दुर्गे हृदयाय नमः
ॐ दुर्गे शिरसे स्वाहा
ॐ दुर्गायै शिखायै वषट्
ॐ भूतरक्षिणि कवचाय हुं
ॐ दुर्गे दुर्गे रक्षिणि नेत्राभ्याम् वौषट्
ॐ दुर्गे दुर्गे रक्षिणि अस्त्राय फट्

If you see the netra mantra here, it is netrabhyam, not netra traya. That means, this particular form of Durga for nyasa, there are only two eyes — not three.

With these mantras, nyasa is to be performed to activate the divine energy in your body.

Mantra works only if you chant visualizing the particular form of devata.
For this, you should know the dhyanam of the mantra.
Devata may have different swaroopas — Durga has many different swaroopas. You should know the exact swaroopa for this mantra. Otherwise, it will create a conflict.

You should necessarily know the swaroopa also and visualize and focus on that swaroopa while chanting. Otherwise, you will not get any benefit. Chanting and visualization should go hand in hand.

Here, the dhyana swaroopa is:

She has the colour of rain clouds — not agni varna as usual, as in tamagnivarnam.
One look by her — the enemies start trembling in fear.
She has a crescent on her forehead.
In her four hands, she is holding shankha, chakra, a dagger, and a trishoola.
She has three eyes — for nyasa it is only two eyes, but in dhyana it is three eyes.
She is seated on a lion — her brilliance is filling the three worlds.
All the devas are assembled around her, serving her and praying for success.

Then you should know how many times you have to chant this mantra for obtaining mantra siddhi.
Here, it is five lakhs.

Not just chanting — you have to do the panchanga purascharana or dashanga purascharana.
Chanting five lakhs times, followed by 50,000 ahutis of homa, 5,000 times tarpana, 500 times abhisheka on yourself, and feeding 50 noble brahmins.

There is dashanga purascharana also — with 10 steps.

Mantra japa will not be successful unless you know the puja and also perform puja.
For this, you should know the structure of the yantra of the particular devata. This will have peetha devatas — you should know all of them — and the avarana-s. An avarana is a concentric layer around the devata, in which other devatas called parivara devatas are present. Each devata will have several layers like this — you should know all of them.

Then what the devata likes in terms of naivedya to be offered.

This much is the basic information needed for sadhana of any mantra.
If your deeksha guru has not given these to you, and you are doing mantra sadhana, then you are just wasting your time.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi